For colder climates, devices have been developed to remotely start a vehicle. The use of such devices allows a user to start their vehicle remotely, from the comfort of a warm environment, such that the vehicle is warmed up and heat is available in the car immediately upon entering the vehicle. In this way, a user is not chilled when sitting in a cold vehicle waiting for it to warm up.
One problem with most existing remote starting devices is their limited range of up to 200 feet. In this case the user must be in proximity to the vehicle before they can start it: Therefore, someone who is returning to their vehicle from work, and is on a train for example, will not be able to start their car until getting off the train. This will not allow the vehicle time to warm up, and defeats the purpose of the remote starter.
Another problem with most existing remote starting devices is that they are installed as an aftermarket unit. Quite often, these aftermarket devices do not work very well due to compatibility issues with the vehicle. In addition, other functions of the vehicle (e.g. normal starting, security features, audio features, etc.) may be compromised by the installation of an aftermarket remote starting unit. Until OEM manufacturers begin providing their own remote starting function, these types of problems will remain.
What is needed is a new technique for remote starting of a vehicle that does not suffer from the aforementioned problems. It would also be of benefit if the technique could be accomplished with little or no additional hardware.